Category: Bike Touring
Border Raiders bike tour in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri
The Biking Bis blog is listing 95 multi-day bike tours in 47 states in 2008. That's 7 more states and 13 more tours than last year. You'll find them at “2008 Across State Bicycle Tours.”
While I was digging around to update the annual rides and fill in some blanks, I was struck by the amazing artwork that some tours use to publicize their events. I'm particularly impressed by ones that keep the bicycle motif, but also lend a flavor from the state they represent.
Border Raiders, above, is probably the most unforgettable. John Brown is hoisting a wheel and a tire pump, looking a lot like an angry dude who has suffered his 5th blowout of the day. I also like the Legacy Annual Great Bike Ride Across Utah (right) because the red-rock arch completes the wheel.
I went back through the links and picked out my favorites. I hope you'll enjoy these too. But first, a few words about this list of state bike tours …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/16/10-amazing-logos-from-across-state-bicycle-tours/
David Sylvester is setting off this week on a quest to bicycle to the trailhead of the highest peak in each of the 48 contiguous states and climb to the top of each and every one. He'll be accompanied by his faithful companion Chiva, a 2-year-old shepherd/husky mix.
If successful, they'll be the first dog-human team to accomplish the feat. And you thought all the Earth's frontiers had been conquered. Not with a dog, they haven't.
Sylvester, a 26-year-old from the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, expects the trek to take 18 months and cover some 10,000 miles. Introducing the tour at his blog, Sylvester says:
“I strongly believe that jumping on my bicycle and riding into the wind with Chiva is the best way to combine and enjoy all my interests in life right now …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/14/bicycling-to-climb-every-mountain/
One of the longest-running week-long bicycle tours is seeking a new operator to breathe new life into the Cycle Across Maryland.
The statewide bicycle advocacy group One Less Car has been running CAM Tour for most of this decade, but has concluded that the event — which celebrates its 20th year in 2008 — is taking too much time away from its advocacy role.
After hearing that this was going to be the final year One Less Car would organize the event, I called executive director Richard Chambers to find out if another group was stepping in. Not yet.
“We don't want it to die,” he said. “We want someone to take it on. It needs a couple of people who can put a lot of time and effort into it to make it a real success.” …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/10/one-less-car-stepping-out-of-cycle-across-maryland/
This Sierra Club poll may not be new, but I've just stumbled across links to it in the past couple of days.
It's sort of a good-natured way to educate bicyclists that they may not be as “green” as they think, depending on some bicycling choices they make.
Take the poll at “How Green is My Bike Ride?” No cheating.
In the efforts of full disclosure, I scored a 91 out of 100. I got knicked for …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/06/how-green-is-your-bike-ride/
Packing list for long-distance touring bicyclist James Schauer: 300 pounds of stuff.
As you can see at left, this 60-year-old semi-retired computer programmer is pretty easy to identify as he hauls his rig across the rolling countryside of rural Maryland. He pedals a mountain bike loaded with stuff and tows a 14-foot canoe that shelters more stuff underneath.
He left the St. Louis area last September and has been tooling around the East Coast by bicycle and canoe ever since. With no house and no car, Schauer says he has no particular destination in mind except to visit relatives on his travels. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/04/have-canoe-will-bike-around-usa/
Most of the snow-bike riders in the Human-Powered Iditarod have trickled into McGrath, the 350-mile checkpoint for those on the way to Nome and the end of the ride for about a dozen.
The latest cyclist to roll into the small town on the banks of the Kuskokwim River Saturday afternoon was Jill Homer, the author of the Up in Alaska blog. She completed the trip in 6 days, 2 hours and 20 minutes.
She recounted some of her experiences on the race message board on Friday. It's difficult to imagine the hardships and exhaustion she and the other cyclists experience. For instance, Jill said at one point she “kept literally falling asleep and falling off my bike.” More …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/02/sleep-pedaling-and-rescues-by-snow-bikers-at-iditarod/
If you're a veteran and see this guy towing a bike trailer filled with his stuff across the southern US, you might want to stop and say hi.
He's Jerry Nelson, 56, a veteran of 15 years in the Navy and a Vietnam vet. He's pedaling cross-country to find some peace of mind.
After hiking last year from New Mexico to Washington DC, where he camped in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, he's now pedaling his Trek 850 hardtail and pulling a Burley trailer to Oregon. Along the way he's spending nights at American Legion posts and speaking to veterans groups….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/28/vietnam-vet-seeks-peace-of-mind-on-bicycle-tour/
Four-legged bane of Trans-American bicycle tourers? Dogs. Four-legged bane of Iditarod snow-bikers? Moose.
The Human-powered Iditarod got underway in 10-degree temperatures on Sunday, and racers snow-biking the route have reported problems with moose along the trail, especially one particularly aggressive female moose.
Meanwhile, Jill Homer, whose Up in Alaska blog is one of the most popular bicycling blogs on the Internet, is posting good enough times to be on pace for a record-setting 350-mile ride into McGrath….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/26/moose-create-hazards-for-iditarod-bicyclists/
They're going to have to rename this event if there are many more days like Sunday in the future for the Chilly Hilly bike rides.
Check out these cyclists basking in the sun as they ride along Rockaway Beach Road on Bainbridge Island Sunday afternoon. That's downtown Seattle, with the famous Space Needle on the left, across Puget Sound with the snow-capped Cascades in the background. In many previous years, much of these scene would be hidden behind a cloud bank.
The Chilly Hilly bike ride is a 33-mile loop around Bainbridge Island. It has been sponsored for 35 years by the Cascade Bicycle Club, which named it for the usual cold, wet, and windy weather that greets cyclists coming out of their winter hibernation …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/25/2008-chilly-hilly-pictures/
You snow-cycling enthusiasts probably already know about this, but the Iditarod Trail Invitational starts this Sunday.
Billed as the world's longest human-powered race, the event starts in Anchorage and follows the famous Iditarod sled dog race course across a frozen landscape to either McGrath — 350 miles, or Nome — 1,110 miles.
Of the 46 entrants, 12 are going by bicycle to McGrath and 10 are riding their bikes to Nome. The rest are hiking or skiing …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/21/ultimate-bicycle-ride-in-the-snow-human-powered-iditarod/
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